“Summary measure” statistic for assessing the outcome of treatment trials in relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis

• Published in: Journal of neurology, neurosurgery and psychiatry Vol. 66; no. 4; pp. 553 - 554
• Main Authors: SIMONIAN, NANCY A, MCALLISTER, ARTHUR, LULL, JULIA
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England BMJ Publishing Group LTD 01-04-1999; BMJ Group
• Subjects: Area Under Curve; Clinical Trials as Topic - methods; Correspondence; Humans; Interferon; Multiple sclerosis; Multiple Sclerosis - therapy; Statistics, Nonparametric; Treatment Outcome
• ISSN: 0022-3050; 1468-330X
• DOI: 10.1136/jnnp.66.4.553

From a clinical perspective, the question should be raised, "Do we want to consider the disability of these patients to be the same by using the AUC summary measure?" Likewise, as the article points out, "Caution is necessary in short trials of 2 or 3 years, as fixed neurological deficits are accumulating very slowly, and an increased AUC at the end of a trial may simply represent transient disability which has either resolved or has yet to resolve." [...]as stated by Matthews et al, 1-8 the AUC statistic is particularly relevant for summarisingpeak data such as the increase and decrease of disability associated with a relapse.